This invention relates generally to a system and method for communicating electronic data, and in particular to a system and method for communicating electronic data in which a portable electronic device transmits data over a telephone line to a central message distribution system.
Prior to the proliferation of computers, people communicated store-and-forward style messages (i.e., messages that are first stored in some manner and then later forwarded) using facsimile machines and direct computer-to-computer data connections over existing and leased telephone lines. As computers became cheaper and easier to use, people began using more advanced facsimile machines, computer facsimile modems, and direct computer-to-computer modem connections to transfer information between each other.
More recently, people began to use commercial on-line services to communicate large amounts of store-and-forward style information (i.e., electronic mail) with each other. Now, a new medium for communicating, the Internet, has attained general public popularity. In the last five years, the number of people connected to the Internet has increased because the Internet allows users who have an Internet account, a modem, and a computer to communicate great amounts of information with each other, regardless of each party's method of accessing the Internet or the geographic location of their Internet access point, at minimal expense. For example, for the cost of a local telephone call, a person in California can send a long electronic mail (e-mail) message to a friend (who also must have Internet access) anywhere in the world. Due in large part to the Internet, the popularity of electronic store-and-forward messaging, such as e-mail, has increased exponentially.
Initially, due to the large size of computers, people typically only accessed the Internet from a desktop computer. Later, as the size and weight of computers decreased from desktops to notebooks to palmtops, people carried their computer with them wherever they went and accessed their e-mail account from any location where they could locate an RJ-11 telephone jack to connect, via modem, to the Internet. At the same time that e-mail was increasing in popularity, paging technology was also increasing in popularity. Many people today carry pagers to ensure that others can easily reach them at any time. In addition, a new product category of portable computer, known as a personal digital assistant (PDA) was introduced. The PDA's are basically very small handheld computers (several of which offer limited messaging capabilities, such as paging or e-mail) that are priced too high (i.e., in excess of $500) for purchase by the average consumer and do not offer communication features well-tailored to the average consumer user's needs.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a handheld device to communicate electronic data through a telephone handset acoustically because it permits access anywhere a handset is located and does not require a RJ-11 telephone jack. However, in order to accurately communicate electronic data over a telephone line using acoustic coupling technology, a microphone and speaker on the handheld computer device must be properly aligned (interfaced) with the speaker and microphone, respectively, of a telephone handset. This coupling of the handheld device and the telephone handset is complicated by the fact that different types of telephones, such as typical pay telephones, cordless phones and analog or digital cellular phones, have different placements of the speaker and the microphone. Thus, it is often necessary, but difficult, to manually align the speaker and microphone of the handheld computer device with the microphone and speaker of the telephone handset. In the event of a misalignment of the speaker and microphone of the device with microphone and speaker, respectively, of the telephone handset which causes poor acoustical coupling, the acoustical signals embodying the electronic data may be garbled or completely lost, necessitating the retransmission of the electronic data.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method for providing feedback to the user of the device to permit the user to establish a better acoustical coupling between the device and the telephone handset and it is to this end that the invention is directed.